MediaPost's article "Time Spent With Display Ads Boosts Search" brings a new metric to light, "Dwelling"...
"Consumers who "dwell," or linger on ads, are more likely to convert from lookers into buyers. They not only increase the time spent with the creative piece, but conduct more brand-related searches on engines and continually return to the company's Web site, according to a recent study. Research from Eyeblaster, Microsoft Advertising and comScore provide evidence for the effectiveness of dwelling on an ad as an engagement metric. Additional analysis by Eyeblaster suggests an impact beyond branding. Ads with a high dwell rate are more likely to have a higher conversion rate too, compared with ads with a low dwell rate. Campaigns with ads that produce a low dwell rate increased site traffic by 10%, compared with those with a high dwell rate at 17%.
Dwell is divided into two metrics: dwell rate and average dwell time. Dwell rate measures the proportion of impressions that were intentionally engaged with by touch, interaction or click. Average dwell time measures the duration of a dwell in seconds for consumers who engage with ads. In both cases, any unintentional time lasting less than one second is excluded."
What else determines and defines success?...
"The findings suggest that interactive ads that attract users to touch and play with them generate interest, and ultimately a higher conversion rate. On average, a higher dwell rate yields a higher conversion rate. But the conversion rate is only one measurement to validate dwell. Since the aim is not to generate conversions, but measure branding effectiveness.
Marketers striving to increase the time consumers spend on a display ad should place the creative pieces around editorial content that require thorough reading, the research suggests. Place ads where people spend time on the Web page. The longer consumers spend on the publisher's Web site and with the content, the higher their dwell rate becomes.
Consider instant messaging. Consumers tend to spend about eight minutes with the ads presented. During some of that time, however, the messenger window is covered by the browser or other programs, but when consumers are actively chatting, they are exposed to the ads for a longer duration.
Marketers can combine video in the ad, and make the ads more assertive and visible. Video ads perform better than ads without video. On average, adding video to ads increases the dwell rate by 29%, compared with banners without video. Video also nearly doubles the dwell time, compared to ads without video. These results are similar across ad formats, verticals and ad sizes."